On musical interval perception for complex tones at very high frequencies.

Hedwig E Gockel,Robert P Carlyon

doi:10.1121/10.0004222

Abstract

Listeners appear able to extract a residue pitch from high-frequency harmonics for which phase locking to the temporal fine structure is weak or absent. The present study investigated musical interval perception for high-frequency harmonic complex tones using the same stimuli as Lau, Mehta, and Oxenham [J. Neurosci. 37, 9013-9021 (2017)]. Nine young musically trained listeners with especially good high-frequency hearing adjusted various musical intervals using harmonic complex tones containing harmonics 6-10. The reference notes had fundamental frequencies (F0s) of 280 or 1400 Hz. Interval matches were possible, albeit markedly worse, even when all harmonic frequencies were above the presumed limit of phase locking. Matches showed significantly larger systematic errors and higher variability, and subjects required more trials to finish a match for the high than for the low F0. Additional absolute pitch judgments from one subject with absolute pitch, for complex tones containing harmonics 1-5 or 6-10 with a wide range of F0s, were perfect when the lowest frequency component was below about 7 kHz, but at least 50% of responses were incorrect when it was 8 kHz or higher. The results are discussed in terms of the possible effects of phase-locking information and familiarity with high-frequency stimuli on pitch.

Highlights

It has been widely argued that the perception of tone chroma, and especially of musical intervals, depends at least partly on the use of information derived from the pattern of phase locking in the auditory nerve (Cariani and Delgutte, 1996; Meddis and O’Mard, 1997; de Cheveigne, 1998)
The present study investigated musical interval perception for high-frequency harmonic complex tones using the same stimuli as Lau, Mehta, and Oxenham [J
Musical interval adjustments were possible for both F0s, even though for the high F0 all harmonic frequencies were above the presumed limit of phase locking

Summary

Introduction

It has been widely argued that the perception of tone chroma, and especially of musical intervals, depends at least partly on the use of information derived from the pattern of phase locking in the auditory nerve (Cariani and Delgutte, 1996; Meddis and O’Mard, 1997; de Cheveigne, 1998) If this is the case, the ability to judge and match musical intervals should be markedly worse for complex tones whose frequency components fall at very high frequencies (!8.4 kHz in the context of the present study), for which phase locking is weak or absent (Johnson, 1980; Palmer and Russell, 1986). Others argue for a limit around 3.5–4.5 kHz in the AN, with a much lower limit of about 1.4 kHz as the highest frequency usable by the central nervous system (Joris and Verschooten, 2013; Verschooten et al, 2015; Verschooten et al, 2018)

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